Job offers at relocated plant not ‘reasonable alternative employment’

After relocating its plant, the employer refused to pay separation allowances to workers who declined job offers at the new facility.

Five workers employed by Sysco Fine Meats refused an offer of employment at a new location when the company moved to consolidate two of its plants into one new location.

The company maintained it had offered the workers reasonable alternative employment according to Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000. The company viewed the workers’ refusals as resignations and said it was not required to pay separation allowances according to the terms of the collective agreement.